The Las Vegas wins over/under line is out and the number for the Washington Redskins places them smack dab in the muddled middle of the NFL.

Depending on where you want to plunk down your money, you can bet that the Redskins win total for 2008 will be more or fewer than 7.5 or eight.

Of course, Vegas lines aren’t necessarily designed to be accurate predictors of what will transpire in autumn. They are calculated to generate equal amounts of action on both sides. That way, no matter what the results of the season are, the house collects the vig of about 10%.

That being said, the line seems about right to me. With reasonable good fortune in the injury department, if Jason Campbell picks up Jim Zorn’s version of the West Coast offense, if a couple of rookies can come through, and if they can catch a couple of good teams on bad days, nine or ten wins is possible.

On the other hand, if they are as banged up as they were last year, if Campbell can’t shake his problem with late-game interceptions, if the offense takes a while to come together, if the schedule turns out to be tougher than it looks right now, and if a few bounces of the ball go against them, they could well end up with six or seven wins.

Looking at it right now, it seems that one mix of factors (the season is likely to bring a combination of positives and negatives) is as likely as the other. That makes the over/under number of eight a good, sporting proposition.

I predict that we will win two or three more games than last year — because of the many new and returning-from-IR players. The Skins will now have a great receiving corps, a deep and dominant offensive line, and a game changing punter. Here are the “new” players who will make a major difference and my estimation of their impact on games won:

Randy Thomas +.5

Jon Jansen +.5

Carlos Rogers +.5

Durant Brooks +.5

Malcolm Kelly +.5

Chad Reinhart +.25

Fred Davis +.25

Devin Thomas +.1

Erasmus James +.1

9 PLAYERS +3.2

Anonymous - May 31, 2008 at 9:30 AM

I predict that we will win two or three more games than last year — because of the many new and returning-from-IR players. The Skins will now have a great receiving corps, a deep and dominant offensive line, and a game changing punter. Here are the “new” players who will make a major difference and my estimation of their impact on games won: